Abstract

In this small-scale research project, five mentors and five mentees from different London colleges were asked what impact mentoring might have, not just on teacher trainees, but on their own learners. How might this impact be measured? To what extent might these forms of evaluation be considered valid and reliable? The implementation of formal mentoring for teacher trainees in the Lifelong Learning Sector has increased the need for systematic evaluation of mentoring schemes in initial teacher training. The mentors’ and mentees’ suggestions for evaluating the impact of mentoring comprised quantitative and qualitative methods and also illustrated the significant challenges to evaluating with any precision the benefits of mentoring in hard statistical terms.